Bottles of Yuengling beer are packaged at Yuengling & Sons brewery in Pottsville. The Yuengling family has been making beer at its hillside brewery at Fifth and Mahantongo streets since 1831. AP file photos

Bottles of Yuengling beer are packaged at Yuengling & Sons brewery in Pottsville. The Yuengling family has been making beer at its hillside brewery at Fifth and Mahantongo streets since 1831. AP file photos

Road Trip Guide: Yuengling Brewery

Yuengling boats the title of America’s oldest brewery, and offers tours to visitors at its site at 501 Mahantongo St., Pottsville.

Jenn Kruss, gift shop manager at the Yuengling factory, said a group of tour guides she called “brewery experts” give two, hour-and-a-half long tours daily of the brew house, bottle shop, old racking room and the caves where the beer was once stored, she said.

The end of the tours include a complimentary beer tasting, but she urges tourists to make sure they have closed-toed shoes, or they can’t be a part of the tour, Kruss said.

The tours are held twice daily during the week at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. From April to December, Saturday tours run from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. as a basic walk through, although Kruss said there is no beer production on Saturdays.

“It’s a completely unique and interesting place to see,” Kruss said.

She added that the brewery sees about 55,000 visitors annually.

The tours are held in a building that was erected 183 years ago, Kruss said. The original brewery was built in 1829 before it burned down two years later.

To this day, it’s still operated by the Yuengling family, and during weekday tours, Kruss said owner Dick Yuengling can be found in the facility.